A problem that frequently arises in communication systems engineering is one related to identifying the most likely sequence of states responsible for producing an observed sequence of symbols. In communication system environments, this problem is typically addressed by a decoder. Algorithms for decoding data are well known. One of the most well-known is the Viterbi algorithm, see A. Viterbi, “Convolutional Codes and their Performance in Communication Systems,” IEEE Trans. on Communications, vol. 19. no. 5, pp. 751-772, 1971, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.
However, there are times and situations when it would be desirable to limit the amount of information disclosed during the decoding process. Unfortunately, the Viterbi algorithm and other known decoding algorithms do not address this concern.